The present disclosure relates to a xerographic printing system. Specifically, a xerographic printing system that may include one or more printing devices, where one or more of the printing devices include a media sheet inverter. In addition, this disclosure is related to a printing system that may include a media sheet inverter independently operatively coupled to one or more printing devices.
In a typical xerographic printing device, such as a copier or printer, a photoconductive insulating member is charged to a uniform potential and thereafter exposed to a light image of an original document to be reproduced. The exposure discharges the photoconductive insulating surface in exposed or background areas and creates an electrostatic latent image on the member, which corresponds to the image areas contained within the document. Subsequently, the electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive insulating surface is made visible by developing the image with a developing material. Generally, the developing material comprises toner particles adhering triboelectrically to carrier granules. The developed image is subsequently transferred to a print medium, such as a sheet of paper. The fusing of the toner to the paper is generally accomplished by applying heat to the toner with a heated nip and application of pressure. In multi-color printing, successive latent images corresponding to different colors are recorded on the photoconductive surface and developed with toner of a complementary color. The single color toner images are successively transferred to the print media to create a multi-layered toner image on the paper. The multi-layered toner image is permanently affixed to the print media paper during the fusing process.
A common trend in the office equipment market, particularly in relation to copiers and printers, is to organize a printing system on a modular basis, wherein distinct subsystems of the printing system are configured into modules which can be readily removed from the printing system and replaced with other modules. A modular design facilitates servicing and repair since a service provider can remove a module from the printing system and repair the module at a convenient place with minimal disruption to the operation of the printing system.
Recently, printing systems have been developed which include a plurality of printing modules, where the printing modules are integrated such that a media sheet can travel from one printing module to another via a media sheet path. These systems enable high overall outputs by printing portions of the same document on multiple printers. Such systems are sometimes referred to as “tandem engine” printers, “parallel” printers, and “cluster printing”, in which a print job may be allocated among multiple printing modules, such as separate printing for the color and monochrome pages.
As discussed above, printing systems can include color printing modules and black printing modules. A cyan, magenta and yellow (CMY) printing module can print in color or black. However, the cost of producing a black only print on a color printing module is often higher than printing a black only print on a monochrome printing device. For example, some color printing devices require the media sheet to be circulated through an image transfer zone multiple times to produce a color or black only print. Another added cost can be associated with the toner required for a color printing device as compared to a monochrome printing device.
In addition to printing systems which include a combination of color printing modules and monochrome printing modules, some printing systems include only color printing modules or only monochrome printing modules. These printing systems may be configured to provide a variety of print sequencing operations to maximize printing thruput and/or minimize overall operational costs.
To provide additional functionality to a printing system device and enable two sided printing, a duplex printing operation can be implemented utilizing a media sheet inverter. Media sheet inverters can be located at the input and/or output of a printing device. The media sheet inverter simply inverts a media sheet for subsequent printing by one or more printing devices.
As can be appreciated from the discussion heretofore, the integration of multiple printing devices provides a multitude of media sheet routing possibilities. In addition, by integrating printing devices which can have different media sheet processing cycle times, management of media sheet routing through the printing system can be important to maximize the throughput and minimize costs.